Venice and the Lagoon: Introduction An ever-growing range of features, links and practical information to help you plan and enjoy your visit to Venice, including guides to hotel accommodation, restaurants, bars, tourist attractions, city neighbourhoods and getting about. There’s a lot here already and we are hard at work adding the sections to complete the […]

Cannaregio, Venice – Good Food and Fine Palaces Above: The municipal Casinò of Venice, housed in the beautiful renaissance Palace of Ca’ Vendramin Calergi, on the Grand Canal Cannaregio is Venice’s second largest sestiere, stretching across the north-west of the city with its main thoroughfare, the Strada Nuova, lined by shops, bars and restaurants and […]

San Marco, Venice: “The Drawing-room of Europe” Let’s face it, there can be few visitors to Piazza San Marco in Venice who have not experienced an almost magical feeling when, standing on the Piazetta with the Doges’ Palace on their left, the Campanile to their right, they first gaze out between the two slender pillars, […]

San Polo and the Rialto, Venice Running to the east of the Rio di San Polo as far as the Rialto, San Polo is the smallest sestiere, and is the oldest and most mediaeval part of Venice, a maze of tiny streets all eventually leading to some part of the Grand Canal. The Liveliest Quarter […]

Dorsoduro, Venice’s “Hard Ridge”: Dorsoduro‘s (literally ‘hard ridge’) refers to the character of the land in this part of Venice, which is a bit higher and rockier – or at least, more solid – than the other less firm areas of land that emerged from the lagoon over the centuries. It’s a sprawling sestiere that […]

Castello, Venice: A Sestiere with a Split Personality Castello is Venice’s largest sestiere, extending from the Rialto to Sant’Elena at the eastern tip of the city. Its name is believed to derive from a fortress on the island of San Pietro, one of the earliest inhabited sites in the lagoon. It was one of the […]

Santa Croce, Venice’s Least Touristy Sestiere Santa Croce is over towards the north-west of Venice and is where you hit the Piazzale Roma bus station to get to the mainland. Small and densely-packed, the sestiere is bordered by the Grand Canal to the north and San Polo and Dorsoduro to the south-east and south. As […]